UFC 85 saw a return of Ultimate Fighting Championship to London, England. The event was officially titled ‘Bedlam’, but often referred to as ‘Cursed’ due to all the injuries and mishaps that caused the lineup to change again and again. ‘Bedlam’ was originally scheduled to be headlined by Chuck Liddell taking on Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in a lightheavyweight bout, but first Rua and then Liddell were forced to withdraw from the card: Rua re-aggravated his knee injury and Liddell tore his hamstring in training. Eventually, the UFC settled on a welterweight main event of Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves.

Chris Leben was also scheduled to appear on this card, taking on Michael Bisping, but ran into some legal problems that forced him to withdraw and be replaced by the Canadian fighter Jason Day. With all the last-minute lineup changes, no title bouts or huge matchups, and only two weeks after the spectacular UFC 84, this event was pretty much an afterthought and carried fairly low expectations. Here’s how it went down:

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There are quite a few tough calls to make this week.  FightMatrix was not created to be a prediction-based system, but its accuracy at the elite level is great, so it should be interesting to see how it fares in match-ups where both fighters are highly ranked.  Although, in Bisping/Day and Swick/Davis, we have two fighters who are still getting accustomed to their new divisions.  For entertainment purposes only, I have colored the betting favorites in GREEN where odds are available.  The system’s calls are on the left.

Welterweight
[#4] Thiago Alves vs. [#6] Matt Hughes

Middleweight
[#22] Jason Day vs. [#31] Michael Bisping

Welterweight
[#15] Mike Swick vs. [#17] Marcus Davis

Heavyweight
[#4] Fabricio Werdum vs. [#20] Brandon Vera

Middleweight
[#9] Nathan Marquardt vs. [#25] Thales Leites

Middleweight
[NR] Martin Kampmann vs. [#57] Jorge Rivera

Lightweight
[#47] Thiago Tavares vs. [#66] Matt Wiman

Light Heavyweight
[#19] Jason Lambert vs. [#165] Luis Cane

Welterweight
[#38] Roan Carneiro vs. [#113] Kevin Burns

Welterweight
[#55] Jess Liaudin vs. [#159] Paul Taylor

Heavyweight
[#48] Eddie Sanchez vs. [#56] Antoni Hardonk

Ranking Note: Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

The past weekend was a important one for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in the United States.  On Saturday, the fledgling Elite XC made history with their CBS debut: the first MMA event broadcast live on a major US television network.  And on Sunday, Zuffa-owned WEC held what was their most heavily hyped card to date, with 145-lbs champion Urijah Faber defending his belt against former UFC 155-lbs title holder Jens Pulver, and Miguel Torres defending his 135-lbs title against Yoshiro Maeda.

 While both events had several exciting, action-packed bouts, the Elite XC broadcast suffered from one huge problem:  all of the televised fights were stopped by either the referee, or the ringside doctor; and the stoppages ranged from mildly questionable to completely mind-boggling.  Fights need to be decided by fighters, not the New Jersey Athletic Comission officials!  That said, here’s how it all went down:

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Headlined by the long-awaited and much hyped lightweight title bout between BJ Penn and Sean Sherk, UFC 84 ‘Ill Will’ was the most anticipated MMA event of the year, to date.  Other than the main event, this card was all about the UFC’s elite 205-lbs division, with five lightheavyweight matchups that all made the televised broadcast.  Here is how it went down:

Thiago Silva vs Antonio Mendes

Mendes starts out aggressive, and quickly knocks Silva down with a partially blocked high kick.  Silva pops back up and is knocked down again – this time with a body kick.  Thiago scrambles up again, Mendes attempts a throw from clinch but lands on the bottom.  Thiago quickly passes Antonio’s guard and pounds away from mount; Mendes is unable to escape and the bout is stopped.

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